5 day alpine climbing course utilising the Ice wall and crevases fantastic experience spending 5 days at 5000m + had a great guide in Wilder and Peruvianandes really looked after me!! Loads of snow made for interesting conditions didn´t summit as was more intersted in additional tuition did do crevasse and self rescue at approx 5400m which I thought more than adequate!

With Jim, Ben and Eric. This was our acclimatization climb after a little stay at Quebrada Llaca 14,000ft, and a night at 16,000 Moraine Camp. Climbed with full effects of AMS on one Rice Krispy Treat. Beautiful views of Ranrapalca and Ocshipalca.

Tim, Jim, Ben and I climbed Vallunaraju as an acclimatization peak on my first trip to the Cordillera Blanca. What an amazing introduction to international climbing. The views from the summit were absolutely amazing.

In June, 1975, Rod Brooks and I did the East Face of Vallunaraju, and came down the North ridge.

We started well after dawn, and reached the top at dark (OK, so we're not very fast), dug a snow cave for the night, and walked down in glorious sunshine the next morning. Since it took a day to walk up to our camp (at the lake, I think), it was a three-day trip in all.

It was a fun climb, mixed snow and rock. We started directly below the notch between the 2 summits, and just zig-zagged our way up following snow benches when we could, and climbing rock between them when we had to. The final pitch was a 50-foot couloir of snow and snow-covered rock that ends up at the notch. We were roped the whole way up, since it's pretty exposed, and I remember putting in some protection on a few pitches, but it was mostly a Class 4 climb.

I'm pretty sure that this was the first ascent of this side of Vallunaraju.

This is a most enjoyable mountain no matter which way you go up, the views are terrific, and it's a great training climb once you've acclimated to Huaraz. Enjoy it!

I reached the summit on a beautiful and sunny day and I was the only person climbing valluna that day. From the col between the two peaks I skied down to the end of the glacier.
Skiing in the Cordillera Blanca means a lot of cariing work (trabajo de burros) but also a beatiful experience!

After a cloudy afternoon with some snowfall, it get cleared by the evening. Five hours from morraine camp and one hour and a half for getting down. Perfectly clear on the top. I did it with my wife and my very good partner Tobias.

Two other climbers from the US whom I met in Peru joined me in climbing this peak. We camped below and then hiked up to the glacier, where we put on our crampons just before daybreak. We made the climb in reasonably good weather and returned to our camp before dark. We were well acclimitized and it was not a difficult climb.

In two days, I climbed Vallunaraju from Huaraz in the Callejon de Huaylas to its top, camping at about 15,000 feet. My companion's name I have forgotten. He was six feet six inches tall and from Alaska. Locally he was known as "Senor Dos Metros."

This was a warm-up mountain for Huascaran where I subsequently went about a week later. Failing to reach Huascaran's summit because of equipment failure and lack of resolve, I must consider Vallunaraju my major mountaineering accomplishment in the Cordillera Blanca. I was thirty-eight years old at that time. After Huascaran, I decided that that any mountain above 15,000 feet was more pain than gain. Two months later, I returned to the States and wrote my Ph.D. dissertation on the Callejon de Huaylas. This proved to be a far more significant achievement. I haven't climbed anything very significant ever since.

Climbed solo to the col between the two summits and then roped up with two Americans I met at the refuge (Kip and Nate) to tackle the severely corniced ridge to the summit. We stopped about 5m below the summit since the cornice was just too scary. The climb took me about 5.5 hours from the refuge to the summit, 2.5 hours to descend. Very nice climb and very interesting glacier (lots of big seracs and crevasses near the route).

Summited with Micah Lambeth after having already climbed Urus Este & Ishinca. Off-route on rock slabs just below the glacier, but were able to get on the glacier and rejoin normal route. The glacier portion of the route was very moderate and nice, with an exposed section on top of the ridge and a couple relatively steep, maybe 40 degrees, and exposed stretches just right of the north summit ridge. Summit schrund just barely evident. Lower part of the trail was a pain to descend since wet and slick by that time of day - frozen mud during the night was fine.

You climbed Vallunaju thirty years after I made it in 1971. Coincidentally you have the same name as my primary physician, Dr. Ulrich Prinz, here in Falls Church, Virginia. He is a very good doctor who has little interest in climbing mountains.